Restaurant Les Arcenaulx Marseille Vieux Port — Restaurant in Marseille

Waited for a few minutes while waitors, who made eye contact with us (young British couple) many times, ignored us and seated multiple groups of people, who arrived after we did. We ordered four tapas dishes to share - two of the same. When we requested that the Panisses be served without the harissa mayonnaise (we are both vegan), the waitor retorted that the mayonnaise would be served on the side, but we reiterated that we would certainly not like the mayonaise, so he accepted. Clearly angered, he remarked that normally one can not order only tapas, which apparently should be accompanied by a main course, since 'this is not that kind of restaurant', despite the menu not indicating this condition. As vegans, we were never going to order from the fish or meat subcategories (the only categories for mains), and as budget-conscious students, we would never order a 16€ tomato salad with or without the feta. Perhaps we were not this establishment's type of customer. To our dismay, our panisses arrived with mayonnaise. Since we believe the animal product is better consumed than wasted in a bin, we finished everything without complaining. During this time, I wrote and accidentally posted an unfinished draft of this review. The food did not redeem the negligent service. Mediocre tapas, yet the mayonnaise was palatable. There was a jarful of olive tapenade left once we'd eaten the accompanying round croutons, which I finished in mounds with pieces of bread roll. I fished out a strand of unrecognisable matter from the tapenade that could have been organic, but potentially was plastic. The tapenade tasted purely of garlic and was difficult to enjoy. Immediately after paying, the waitor sardonically whimpered 'thank you for your comment on internet'. This snarky and immature comment only encouraged me to complete my first review (have never felt the need to leave reviews until this evening). To summarise, it was, in fact, the following type of restaurant; an overpriced second-rate trap unsuitable for people with diatary requirements of any kind with at least one ill-mannered and snobby...

This is a beautiful restaurant that specializes in fine seafood. On that front it absolutely delivers as the food is very good, if a little pricey. Unfortunately the service was extremely bad. Some of the waiters were very friendly, some were actually quite rude. Even that is ok, but there were so many errors made in the service that it made the evening quite frustrating. The wrong dishes were served to our table (which was thankfully corrected quickly), though we had to walk to the bar to let them know as they were delivered so hurriedly we couldn't tell them when they arrived and there were no staff around for several minutes afterwards. They forgot our dessert order which we had to remind them of and took nearly an hour from asking for the dessert menu to receiving them. They really need to work on their service system as I believe the staff have mostly good intentions, but we were served by perhaps 6 different people which I think caused a lot of...

We were one of the first tables seated at 7:30. We left the restaurant at 10:15 frustrated and disappointed. We waited for every course and then 30 minutes for the bill.

The bouillabaisse was mediocre at best; it smelled great but the fish was tasteless and dry if that is possible in a soup. The veal with mushrooms topped with heated fois gras was disappointing; the sauce overwhelmed the meat. The salad with salmon was pleasant while the artichoke and bacon appetizer was also overwhelmed by the sauce. I tried to flatter the server by asking him to choose a wine and it was, well, mediocre. A theme is emerging here.

The atmosphere is great, however. Books line the exposed stone walls and there are wooden rafters in the ceiling (I had lots of time to notice such things). Apparently the building used to be a library.

Reservations are important here. We saw lots of people turned away...